You wrote what you know.

Friendly reminder that Amazon has more small and local business on it, giving you a wider selection of independent booksellers to support at a lower cost to you and a higher profit to them as Amazon takes far less than 30% of sales.

The presence of wilderness is the exact opposite of desolation. Wilderness is full of life, as we see in Fellowship as they travel through rich lands full of flora and fauna, where even the trees have a form of animal-level consciousness. It is in fact beautiful and in any other circumstances (fleeing the Ringwraiths) would have been a charming and beautiful experience.

The world isn't desolate. Its full of life and free peoples. Nor is it declining, though it is transforming. God's purpose for the Elves in the world has been accomplished and even the rebellious ones are returning to the fold. As a result now Men can take center stage and God's purpose in Creation of them can be fulfilled.

>“The Lord of the Rings' is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision. That is why I have not put in, or have cut out practically all references to anything like 'religion,' to cults or practices, in the imaginary world. For the religious element is absorbed into the story and symbolism.” ―Tolkien

God is not in one place in Lord of the Rings. God is everywhere in Lord of the Rings. The reason you can't see it is because you have no understanding of the Christian worldview generally or the Catholic worldview specifically.

These chapters contain my favorite paragraph in all of literature:

>They followed him as he stepped lightly up the grass-clad slopes. Though he walked and breathed, and about him living leaves and flowers were stirred by the same cool wind as fanned his face, Frodo felt that he was in a timeless land that did not fade or change or fall into forgetfulness. When he had gone and passed again into the outer world, still Frodo the wanderer from the Shire would walk there, upon the grass among elanor and niphredil in fair Lothlorien.

People erroneously compare The Silmarillion to the Bible. The Silmarillion is nowhere near as complex or dense as the Bible is, nor is it anywhere near as long. The Silmarillion is much more like a collection of Greek myths. All the stories in it are short, easily read, and while they interrelate you don't really have to remember very much or anything at all about the other stories because each story works on its own.

> Fog on the Barrow-Downs is my favorite chapter. Legit horror elements there.

Its The Navidson Record before House of Leaves was written.

If you want to understand Fallout, watch Watership Down.

> Tolkien wrote it to read to his kids at bedtime.

The core story of the book developed from stories Tolkien told his children at bedtime. As he was writing it down he bean to include more and more references to his Middle-Earth works until finally the book was full-fledged Middle-Earth story.

The Ainulindalë is one of the most beautiful pieces of fiction that I've ever read.

Really, it's almost nothing like reading the Bible. It is more like if someone handed you a book of Greek myths and told you to read it.

Tevildo really isn't anything like Sauron. That would be Thu the Necromancer and Lord of Werewolves. Tevildo does show us just how much Tolkien hated cats though. Dude was very much a dog person.

The Tale of Middle Earth Rapunzel is great!